Too Brittle To Be Worth Recommending, Choice Ties 17 Inch Extra Heavy Duty Cable Ties

The Good: They can work well
The Bad: Brittle, Expensive
The Basics: Choice Ties 17 Inch Extra Heavy Duty Cable Ties are useful, but break too easily to be truly useful.


When I moved from New York to Michigan, I was on my own. My wife had made the trip before me and set up shop in Michigan, so I was responsible for getting our pets and all of our possessions to Michigan. That meant that I had to rent a U-Haul. Unfortunately, the “fine folks” at U-Haul ripped out the underside of my car when putting my 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid (reviewed here!) up on the trailer I rented. I had no idea that the crunching sound the car made when the worker put it on the trailer was the bottom shield of the car getting separated from the bottom, nor did I know that the tearing and subsequent clunking was that plastic shield (which protects the engine from all manner of crap coming off the road) dragging along the road as I tried to drive the car. With the local U-Haul affiliates unwilling to take any sort of responsibility for writing up and paying for the damage to my car (or just getting this problem repaired, considering I had paid for the insurance when I rented the U-Haul and trailer!) I took the only recourse open to me: I made a car repair. For the last six months, my car’s front has been held together with zip ties (cable ties). Last weekend, there was a big snow here in Michigan and the last of those ties broke off, so I had to find replacements. I went with Choice Ties 17 Inch Extra Heavy Duty Cable Ties.

Choice Ties 17 Inch Extra Heavy Duty Cable Ties are 17 1/2" long black plastic cable ties that are 3/8” wide. They have a blockish end through which the cable tie is fed and in that block, there is a simple latch that “locks” the tie to itself and prevents any backward slippage. Choice Ties 17 Inch Extra Heavy Duty Cable Ties come locally in packs of 25 for $8.59. That struck me as pretty expensive, but given my need, I bought them anyway.

Unfortunately, after repairing my car with only eight of the Choice Ties 17 Inch Extra Heavy Duty Cable Ties, I am down to ten cable ties. What happened to the other seven? They broke. Even though I was going around car parts that were well over the minimal diameter the cable tie could accommodate and the cable ties were binding parts that exerted far less pressure than the 175 lbs. that these ties are supposed to withstand, they snapped, their locking portions cracked off and they broke even before I could cut their tips off!

Losing almost half of the ties one is attempting to use is terrible on the quality front, but to be fair to Choice Ties, the eight that are in use on my car have held perfectly. I’m not waiting until they snap to find less important uses for the remaining ten; if I can’t trust most of a product to work, I am not buying it again and I am certainly not endorsing it for anyone else to use.

2/10

For other reviews, please visit my Review Index Page for organized listings of the various types of reviews I have written!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Very Average Automobiles: 2009 Kia Rio5

The Good: Comfortable seats, Decent trunk space, Affordable
The Bad: Not extraordinary gas mileage, horsepower or features
The Basics: Very comfortable to drive or be a passenger in, the Kia Rio5 is a relatively inexpensive car for small families or individuals who are living in their car.


When it comes to cars, I am not a writer for Car And Driver, nor am I one who views automobiles as a status symbol. I don't sublimate my needs or insecurities into my car and I don't care much for flash over substance. I probably get my car viewpoints - on what the purpose and nature of cars are - from my mother. She helped me buy my first Saturn and when I bought my current car, a hybrid, she managed to rail on me pretty hard about the expense of the vehicle. Either way, probably because of her influence in my life when it comes time to buying cars, I have looked for affordable, small, fuel-efficient and just heavy enough to survive the roads in winter in Upstate New York. My Civic Hybrid meets two of those criteria (three when I have a job and can afford it!).

Last winter, my mother was in a minor car accident where she drove off the road into a snowbank and damaged the engine muffler on her Saturn Ion. For the next six months, she drove around her car and it sounded like a tank or other heavy military vehicle while driving or riding in the car. It was nightmarish and it capped off the poor experience she had with the Ion with an annoying roar. So, rather than repairing her car, shortly before inspection time came up, she bought a brand new Kia Rio5 hatchback. Since then, she has been enthusiastically driving about and proudly talking up all of its features. While I've been observing those features for myself - and wondering what happened to the woman who used to demand that Saturn remove the audio cassette player from her car and not charge her for the frivolous thing she did not need as she goes on at length about how much she loves her Sirius radio - all of her talking about the car did not prepare me truthfully for the experience of driving it.

The reason for the lack of preparation is simple: no matter how enthusiastic my mother was about her new toy, when I sat behind the wheel and began driving, it felt like every other standard gasoline driven compact car I have ever driven. It was like what it actually was; driving a car. There was no mystery to it, nothing truly exciting. Despite the bells and whistles, it was a moderately comfortable, very basic driving experience and I suspect once the newness of the experience wears off for her, she'll calm down. Even so, after four months of ownership, she still seems pretty excited by the Sirius radio (more excited because her free trial has mysteriously continued past its three months!).

The Kia Rio5 comes in several colors and my mother got the stylish black with gray interior. The hatchback seems to be a compact car with more trunk space and a trunk door which is essentially like another door in that the rear windshield is attached to the trunk door the way windows are attached to the side doors. As such, the Rio5 is a sleek generally teardrop-shaped car that has four doors, what seems like a very long nose and a ceiling that is higher than the average compact car's roof. The Rio5 my mother bought is an automatic transmission and it unlocks easily with the touch of a button on the remote starter.

The instant impression I had when sitting down behind the driver’s seat of the Rio5 was that I was in something that was affordable, but meant to give the impression of being very comfortable. Unlike my first Saturn (an SL1) which I would have described as “functional” or “cramped,” the Rio5 feels spacious, even though I know it is not an exceptionally roomy vehicle compared to trucks or station wagons. This, however, feels like the interior midpoint between compact cars and the bigger vehicles with as much room as a sedan has. I’m over six feet tall and with the driver’s seat pulled all the way back, I had no problem reaching the pedals and feeling pretty comfortable while doing it. In fact, to the credit of Kia, when I had the driver’s seat back, an adult male could still fit in the back seat (presumably) comfortably. The Rio5 has “five” seats; I put the five in quotes because the back seat is a pretty standard bench style backseat and it comfortably fits two adults and may uncomfortably fit three average sized adults. Despite the claims, the Rio5 is roomy enough for four to be seated quite comfortably, but five makes the vehicle feel cramped.

As for the headroom, here the Rio5 made me feel disappointed about returning to my Honda after driving! The Rio5 was roomy enough that my head never came close to brushing the ceiling. My arms had enough room to move around and everything from the drink holders to the stereo controls was within easy reach of my fingers. Even with the seatbelt on, I had decent range of motion in the driver’s seat and had no problem seeing any of the mirrors, nor adjusting them using the controls in the cockpit and on the steering wheel.

Given that the car is only four months old (or at least, four months on the road!) and my mother started driving it when it was at 19 miles on the odometer, it is no surprise that the key turns easily and the engine purrs to life almost instantly. Compared to my mother’s damaged Saturn, the Rio5 sounds like a whisper, compared to my hybrid, the Rio5 sounds like a low, gentle murmur. The engine does not make excessive noise while idling, but one of the aspects that surprised me about the Rio5 was that when I turn the key and the engine starts, the electrical systems, like the lights, radio and panels (odometer/gas mileage gauge/clock) take a few seconds to boot up. In normal and cold weather there was no difference, but turning the key, the driver ought to be prepared for a three to five second wait while the car systems all become active. This is not a huge deal, but anyone banking on the zombie apocalypse coming soon ought to consider this before buying the Rio5.
Sliding the shift lever – which felt a little closer to the dashboard in between the front seats than the one in my car – forward put the Rio5 into gear exceptionally easily. The gears shift very smoothly from park to either drive or reverse and when I switched from reverse to drive, there was no lag in the car’s movement. The Rio5 very smoothly breaks from static to moving – there is no jerking and this is a very smooth ride. The Rio5 also seems to have a very sensitive steering wheel. It took very little motion from my hands to turn the wheel and get the car to move in exactly the direction I wanted it to go. The steering wheel was not exactly a hairtrigger for the movement of the wheels, but it was definitely one of the more sensitive cars moving the wheels almost the instant the wheel is turned more than three degrees. The responsiveness, then, is excellent.

The Kia Rio5 has a wonderful acceleration curve and it is very smooth to go from a stop up to 65 miles per hour. Similarly, the brakes on my mother’s Kia Rio5 are very impressive, which a night drive on country roads with deer running around helped me to prove! The reaction time is quick and the stopping distance seemed to be a little bit better than my predicted stopping position when I practiced slamming on the breaks. Following abrupt breaking – which did not cause the Rio5 to fishtail or move out of lane in any way! – the Rio5 resumes driving forward exceptionally easily with no noticeable issues. While driving at speeds from 65 – 70 miles per hour, I noticed the steering wheel became a little less mobile, which kept the drive smooth. The Rio5 has cruise control and there are convenient controls on the steering wheel to activate, resume, cancel, and accelerate/decelerate using the cruise control. Also interesting was the fact that the radio controls are also imbedded in the steering wheel, which allows one to change the radio stations and turn the volume up or down on c.d.s or the radio without one’s hands ever leaving the steering wheel. On my first drive, I accidentally inverted the “volume up” with the “accelerate” button for the cruise control, but I imagine as one continues driving the Rio5 that sort of mistake happens less and less.

As for the fuel economy, the Kia Rio5 is exceedingly average or, as I think of it: desperately disappointing for anyone who has had a hybrid and/or expects current cars to be working us out of the gasoline crisis. After four months use, my mother’s gas mileage meter – which is on the dashboard and she never resets it – is at 40.1 miles per gallon. This is worse than both my first Saturn and my current hybrid, but seems to be about average for the new “fuel efficient” cars on the road. Considering that my mother has been heating her car excessively (winters in Upstate New York, almost retirement age driver, it’s understandable!) it is possible the gas mileage will get better, but 40.1 mpg is what the car is currently at and my mother has driven is 17,062 miles (I drove it about forty).

After four months of daily use, there have been no maintenance issues with the Rio5. It does, however, come equipped with a 100,000 mile warranty, which I wish my hybrid had! As far as safety goes, there are front and side airbags as well as passenger curtain-style airbags, but my mother balked at the idea of me setting any of them off to test them for this review.

The Rio5 has easy-to read displays that are clear. The gas gauge and speedometer are visible above the steering wheel on the dashboard, so it is very easy to look down from driving to see one’s current status. The display for the radio is also brightly lit and looks good. Apparently, there is a light on the dashboard that will come on when a tire is low from lack of pressure or the car is otherwise off-balance; my mother said she caught a glimpse of it when she hit a pothole, but I’ve not seen it.

The Rio5 does offer more leg room than my Civic Hybrid. In addition, the trunk space is significantly greater than my compact Civic Hybrid. The trunk is spacious (it could fit a decent-sized nightstand in with the seats up) and is positively huge with the seats down – we were able to get a dresser in this fairly small car just by putting the back seats down! The rear door swings up and stays up; while loading and unloading the dresser and nightstand, I did not hit my head on it. Like other cars built today, the cup holders are a bit small for my travel mugs and that was annoying, but given how comfortable the ride was, if I was spending more time in the Rio5, I’d probably invest in an inexpensive travel mug that fir the cupholders for this. Nicely, the cupholders do perfectly fit an extra large coffee cup from Dunkin’ Donuts!

My mother’s Rio5 came with a power package which allows her unlock the car with a remote keychain. Apparently, this is still a big deal, but the power package also includes power windows, mirrors that heat up to defog in the cold, and slightly better speakers upon which my mother listens to the Sirius radio which she gets free for three months for shelling out $12,000 for the car. There is also a pretty standard c.d. player and all of the heating and cooling controls keep the environment in the car comfortable.

The Kia Rio5 is a very comfortable ride and it is heavier than my hybrid, which makes driving in snow a lot easier than in my lighter car. Because the car has a little more mass to it, it makes it easy to drive confidently in all weather and it has enough power going up hills and accelerating that it keeps up or passes all of the trucks on the road in my area. And, frankly, I would rather be comfortable and confident in the Rio5 in winter than bouncing around in a big, gas-guzzling truck! This is a good car for those who do not need to transport much stuff, but want four people to get away anywhere on the road in comfort without paying as much to operate or sticker price as a luxury vehicle.

For other cars, please check out my reviews of:
2005 Honda Civic Hybrid
2007 Ford Focus

6.5/10

For other reviews, please visit my Index Page for an organized listing of the reviews I have written.

© 2012, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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2007 Ford Focus: Two Weeks Of Hell Come To An End!

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The Good: Comfortable, A lot of nice bells and whistles, ? Safe?, Drives smooth
The Bad: No traction control, VERY light, Terrible gas mileage, Low environmental rating, Accelerates poorly
The Basics: Blah, this automobile is way behind the times and I am quite happy to be rid of it after two weeks of being condemned to one!


I am not a reviewer for Car And Driver Magazine. I'm not big into cars, they are not my passion, I'm not an expert on how they work. I drive cars. And, alas, I occasionally get them into accidents. Such is what happened to my poor Boopsie. Boopsie is my 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid (reviewed here!) and she represents, to date, my only attempt to write about cars. There are thousands of sites out there that will provide the interested consumer with the technical data on the 2007 Ford Focus I am here to review. This review will focus (pun intended) on what the car was like to drive and what my two weeks with the car were like as I awaited the return of my beloved Boopsie.

While my primary car was being repaired, I spent two weeks driving around a 2007 Ford Focus, one of the more economical cars put out by Ford Motor Company. The one I found myself driving - I was not given a choice - was gold and because I live in the middle of nowhere, I ended up putting on 1280 miles over the course of the ten days I had the Focus. That's ten days and a thousand miles I can never get back in my life and it's a whole lot more money for gasoline than I've spent in a long time!

The Ford Focus is a compact four door car (I don't know why they're called "sedans," other than the same reason some ground beef in gravy is called "salisbury steak") that is not very tall, not very long, yet is strangely rather wide. The driver is down low to the ground, which helps one to remember their connection to the road. Sedan drivers are seldom cocky and Focus drivers I imagine are perhaps even more cautious with things like backing up.

From the first moment I sat down in the Focus, I felt I was driving something that might best be described as "cumbersome." The Focus is not huge, but the interior is roomy enough that it gives the illusion of being spacious. The driver's and passengers seats have ample leg room for a tall person such as myself, but the three seats in back are terribly cramped. I could not fit into the back seats while the driver's seat was back where I needed it to be (as a long-legged individual). This makes this a poor choice for, for example, a pile of college students. Young adults will be crammed into this most uncomfortably.

To be sure, they will have headroom. The Focus was roomy enough that my head never came close to brushing the ceiling. My arms had enough room to move around and everything from the drink holders to the stereo controls was within easy reach of my fingers. This made some of the other bells and whistles (see below) seem rather pointless and redundant, but I suppose for those who are not so tall, there might be issues with reaching such things? As it was the Focus had all of the controls within easy reach and it was easy to move around in it.

It was not, however, the easiest car to move around. First, out of all of the times I hopped in the Focus and turned the key, only twice did it start right away! EVERY other time, the electrical system powered up, but the gas engine stalled and I had to make a second attempt. For those thinking I might just be so lame as to not know how to turn on a car, I followed the correct procedure of, you know, turning the key and holding it there until it gave the happy startup noises. Every time, it would do that, then stall out. Go figure.

Pulling out, I noticed that the Focus is a bit sluggish. There's a pretty sizable wheel-control differential. What I mean by this is that some cars have a feather steering wheel; you touch the wheel and your car is going in a dramatically different direction. Boom. The 2007 Ford Focus is a bit more sluggish than that; the wheel is turned several degrees before anything remotely interesting happens to correspond with it in terms of the car's movement. Backing into spots made the car seem especially cumbersome as well and the car's width became annoying when trying to park in cramped parking lots. While the car (obviously) fits within the legal parking spaces, I found out immediately that the width is prohibitive to getting a parking space AND being able to comfortably get out of the car when one is boxed in.

As far as general driving, the Ford Focus was much slower on the acceleration than my Civic Hybrid. To be fair to the Focus, the car leaps from 40 to 80 with disturbing speed, but getting from zero to 55 took a longer time and the car seemed to make a serious effort in order to make that transition. The cruise control is similarly finicky; the controls for that are on the left side of the steering wheel and setting and resetting the cruise control became more of an annoyance than a convenience as the ability to accelerate up with the touch of a button was remarkably inconsistent. When adjusting the cruise control up, I would get velocity changes ranging from +1/2 mph to +2 mph, without any sense of consistency. Similarly, the Focus was especially slow to decelerate using the cruise control controls. It could not be counted on to lower my speed fast enough, so I generally found myself knocking the cruise control off and resetting it at a lower speed once I got where I wanted, as opposed to letting the controls do it for me (which is pretty much the point of cruise control . . .).

On the subject of fuel economy, the Ford Focus is a nightmare. I refuse to look up what the gas mileage for this car was supposed to be, but I got out of it a pathetic 24.8 miles per gallon and the read-out when I picked the car up had indicated that prior to me the car was getting 23.7 mpg. In this day in age, this is an inexcusable waste of gasoline! My first Saturns all got 35 - 45 mpg and that this newer car is crapping out that low is absolutely pathetic. Who wants to drive a car that gets so little in the way of gas mileage?! But here's the thing that, as a hybrid owner, truly annoyed me when I thought about it: I had the car for ten days. I spent as much on gasoline in those ten days as I did last summer to drive cross country from Upstate New York to San Diego, CA. THAT is the biggest indictment I can give about how lousy this car truly is. 1200 miles in it cost me the same as 3,000 in my preferred vehicle!

And this is a well-maintained Ford Focus. It had only 25,000 miles on it (my hybrid had 100,000 miles when I began my cross country venture last summer!).

The Focus made me miserable from its displays the first time I turned the key. Okay, the second time I turned the key and got the vehicle running. There is nothing on the display that shows what gear one is in. That means every time one turns the car on and puts it in gear (I was driving an automatic Focus), one has to look down at the shift. I know that might sound lazy to have a gripe about that, but there it is.

The Focus does offer more leg room than my Civic Hybrid. As well, there is a trunk that is best described as "massive" for a sedan. I was able to haul all of my stock that I take to conventions in the Focus in the trunk as opposed to the trunk and back seat of my hybrid. The trunk is spacious, it's hard not to give Ford that. It is a generally comfortable cockpit.

What else doesn't work about the Ford Focus? The cup holders. Seriously, I don't know who designed the cup holders, but I think they think whomever is driving the compact Ford Focus is driving around with all mammoth mugs. I picked up a standard 20oz. coffee and when making a turn/accelerating, the coffee cup tipped in the cup holder because it was nowhere near the right size!

The Focus came with a c.d. changer which was intuitive to operate (I've never had a c.d. changer before). I imagine some of the controls, like the lights and windshield wipers become easier to use with more than two weeks driving experience, but the Focus controls did not seem to be designed with effortless operation in mind (at least to me!). The light controls are tucked away below the left side of the steering wheel, making them inconvenient to get to and annoying to find in the dark. The windshield wipers are operated by twisting a dial on the left wand and I find that far less convenient than simply shifting a wand up or down for wiper speeds.

Living in upstate New York, I enjoy traction control (something even my hybrid does not have). The Ford Focus does not have traction control and it is a car that desperately needs it. In a wintry upstate New York climate, this car needs traction control. Why? It's a VERY light car. This might be idea for climates without extreme winters or winds, but I live in one that has both. As a result, there were times when driving the Focus that I was blown something fierce. This became a control issue when I had just filled up the tank and was driving through wind and snow (about 30 MPH winds, 1/2" of snow) and I found myself losing control of the Focus. This was exceptionally unnerving and to slide in a car even when it bears the weight of all that fuel (the tank is something like 13 gallons!) is disturbing.

The heating system work quite well as does the c.d. player and radio. The car also has a allows the trunk to be open from the remote key, but I discovered that the front hood kept popping open, too.

The best I can say about the Ford Focus is that it's a generally comfortable ride. Once it gets up to speed and I stop worrying about how much money I am wasting on the gas, it drives fine. The breaking is fairly smooth, the seats are comfortable and the entire driving experience is fine, if dull.

Perhaps that's the thing, the Ford Focus isn't about exciting driving, it's about reliable transportation and on that front, it does seem to deliver. But with fuel costs being what they are, it forces the driver to pay through the nose for that reliability. And that the gas mileage is so low just seems lazy in this day in age. One only hopes that by not purchasing this car, Ford will be inspired - immediately - to do better.

It needs to do much, much better.

5/10

For other reviews, please check out my Index Page for an organized listing of my various reviews!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Two Years, No Problems, Knock On Wood; You Can Because The 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid Is An Environmental Car!

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The Good: Amazing environmental rating, Great gas mileage, Comfortable, Nice standards
The Bad: No traction control, VERY light, Effect of environmental factors, No black
The Basics: An overall decent driving experience, the 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid is fun to drive, environmentally friendly and cheap to operate, if not inexpensive to pay off.


This review was originally written a few years back; my hybrid now has 243,000 miles, but it still runs exceptionally well!

Nothing inspires creativity like necessity and in a similar way, nothing inspires buying a new car like totaling the one you had before. My first car was a 2003 Saturn SL-1 and I was quite happy with it. It was affordable, generally fuel efficient and it was in every way a great first car, perfect for my needs. When it was totaled and I walked away from the accident alive, which was a close call, the first place I looked for a new car was Saturn. I walked into the Saturn dealership and said, "I've just totaled my old Saturn and I'm looking for a new car. What do you have in the way of hybrids?" The response was, "We won't have a hybrid sedan until 2008." And my response was, "Too bad. See you later." So much for the car company that was going to change everything.

After a bit of research through Consumer Reports, the U.S. Government's crash test laboratories and the EPA, I decided that the ideal car for me was going to be a Honda Insight with its rumored 70 miles per gallon, so I set off for the Honda dealership. Once there, I discovered that the Insights were so popular, my local dealership wasn't even getting one. So, I decided to look at the Honda Civic Hybrid, which was the third most fuel efficient car on the market at the time (behind the Insight and Toyota Prius). I took the car for a test drive.

I bought it the next day; they were motivated to sell it, it appears. The car had been on the lot for 33 days and I was the first test drive of it. Go figure. Anyway, this serves as a pretty decent report on a seasoned Honda Civic Hybrid. I have had the car for two years - mileage was at 8.2 miles when I bought it, it's now at 84,332. So I've gotten around quite a bit in the meantime.

The Civic Hybrid is modeled identically on the outside to other Civics, which means that it is a compact four door car (I don't know why they're called "sedans," other than the same reason some ground beef in gravy is called "salisbury steak") that is not very tall, not very long and not very wide. The driver is down low to the ground, which helps one to remember their connection to the road. Sedan drivers are seldom cocky. :)

The Civic Hybrid, like most hybrids, has a reputation for not having good kick. Hybrids, for some reason are assumed to have an inability to go from stop to fast with the best of them, but when I've needed to make an aggressive start or am pushing onto an on ramp, I've never had a problem. In fact, my biggest problem has been other cars going too slow for me. This hybrid kicks with great acceleration when needed.

So we're all on the same page, this is a gasoline/electric hybrid car. Behind the back seats is a collection of batteries (the back seats do NOT fold down, as a result!) that kick in to assist with accelerating. When the car is decelerating, the battery recharges. The gasoline engine is never replaced with the electric one. It's not that kind of hybrid. There is a convenient display on the dashboard the illustrates the power level of the battery and when the electric engine is being engaged and when the batteries are being charged. It actually becomes fun to watch. The lowest my battery has ever gotten was two bars and that was while climbing mountain roads (literally) in Colorado and Arizona. For my average New York drive, the car remains nearly fully charged in the batteries. Which is very reassuring. Truth be told, I don't know if the electric engine would kick in if the gasoline engine ran completely out of fuel. I'm not one to let that happen.

While on the subject, like most cars I've driven, the Civic Hybrid works most fuel efficiently the closer to full the tank is. Despite the advertised 50 miles per gallon the Civic Hybrid supposedly achieves, the best I ever got was 52 mpg within the first three months of driving. Now, I average 42 mpg (spring, summer, fall, highway and city) and 38 mpg (winter). The closest I've gotten to the 50 mpg after the first three months use was 48 mpg driving through the Kansas flatlands in summer. Nothing even close since then. Bummer. And I've kept completely up with the servicing of the car.

There's a lot that's relative about the driving experience, but I have to say one of the coolest functions of the Civic Hybrid is that when the car is properly configured, coming to a complete stop turns off the gasoline engine. This is part of what makes the car so fuel efficient and gives it the lowest emissions of a car using any gasoline. It's also something that takes adjusting; the net effect is that the car feels like is has stalled, when it is simple conserving energy. Removing your foot from the break restarts the gasoline engine.

Having been cramped in a Saturn SL-1, the Civic Hybrid offered a nice amount of leg room and head room I was not accustomed to. Instead, there's less trunk room, but as someone who hauls merchandise around the country, I am pleased to say the space within the back seat and trunk of the Civic Hybrid is comparable to that of other sedans, like the SL-1, plus more legroom for driver and passenger. This makes it a much more comfortable ride for long trips.

What doesn't work about the Civic Hybrid? Well, my first color preference was black and they did not have it, at least when I bought this. This is an expensive car. I lucked out and bought it right before the gas rates skyrocketed and could justify the expense. Being environmentally responsible can be a real hit to the wallet, but it's a good message to send to the car companies to buy something like a Hybrid to illustrate there is a market there for saving our planet.

Living in upstate New York, I came to enjoy my Saturn's traction control (even though I don't completely understand how it worked). The Civic Hybrid does not have traction control, in fact the guy who sold me the car screwed up his face something fierce and asked, "What's traction control?" when I asked about it. This leads to the only real serious drawback of the Civic Hybrid I have yet been able to find (outside the expense); it's a VERY light car. This might be idea for climates without extreme winters or winds, but I live in one that has both. As a result, there are times when driving that my car (and I) have been blown something fierce. I've not had problems with control, but when playing with the car on ice, I have felt quite acutely how disconnected the car can be from the road under icy conditions.

The heating systems work quite well as does the c.d. player and radio. The car also has a nice security function which can disconnect the trunk opening lever on the inside of the car, requiring a key to be used to open the trunk. That level of security can be reassuring to those who use the car for business.

The battery array ($1,000 when I purchased the car) has a warranty of 80,000 miles and now that I've surpassed that I honestly live in fear that it will suddenly kick out on me. It shows no sign of doing that, though. The standard warranty for the Civic Hybrid is a pathetic 3 year/30,000 mile warranty. That lasted barely five months for me. I've not had to replace anything yet, so I'm still satisfied in that regard.

And finally, it's a comfortable ride. The acceleration and breaking is smooth, the seats are comfortable and the entire driving experience is relaxing and low-key. I'm pleased I purchased my Civic Hybrid and I suspect it will be an ideal fit for anyone who is looking for great gas mileage and low emissions. I'm liable to keep my Civic Hybrid even after Saturn starts coming out with theirs.

Of course, the first one to make a 100mpg car with super low emissions is liable to get my business right away. I only hope one is on the market and affordable by the time I get into my next accident . . . er, finally wear out this car.

8/10

For other random product reviews, please visit my Other Review Index Page for a listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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